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In colloquial Hindi, there is a common phrase that’s often used as a reprimand: Halwa hai kya? The phrase puts a difficult task, say creating a flying machine that can take you to the moon and back, in contrast with the relatively easy task of making the sweet dish, Halwa. The reference is so simple that even the youngest of kids can understand it. After all, making that favourite dessert with innumerable regional variations, the Halwa, is no rocket science!
But did you know, that though cooking up the Halwa is kid’s play, the history of the dish is as rich and peppered with deliciousness as the Halwa as we know it today? In fact, did you know that even as we Indians finish off a buffet with a bowl or two of Halwa, the sweet dish is served even now in Middle-Eastern nations like Oman with a cup of coffee? Here’s everything you need to know about the delicious history of the Halwa.
Your Halva Is My Halwa
Still popularly known as Halva or Halvah in the Middle East, the word Halwa simply means ‘sweet confection’ in Arabic, coming from the root word ‘halw’ which means sweet. Modern-day Egypt also has a variety, called Halawa, made of clarified butter, flour and sugar. While its exact origins are not known, food historian Colleen Taylor Sen explains in her book, Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India (2016), that the dish came to India via Persia. Many experts believe that the term Halvah was first applied to a concoction of mashed dates and milk, but the pasty, thick flour or semolina-based version only came up in the ninth century.
According to others, the Halwa as we know it today came into being during the Ottoman Empire (1520-1566). Some even believe that the version of the Halwa which included grains and nuts is actually from the Byzantine Empire of twelfth century Persia (now Turkey). However, the first concrete mention of the dish comes from the Kitab al-Tabikh, a thirteenth century Arabic cookbook by Muhabbad ibn al-Hasan Ibn al-Karim. The book mentions eight varieties of halwa by mixing sugar, dates, nuts, cardamom, camphor and rose water in grains and milk.
The Halwa Comes To India
In her book, Taylor Sen explains that the Halwa came to India through coastal trade routes via Karachi and Kozhikode. She quotes Abdul Halim Sharar, the nineteenth century author of Guzishta Lucknow, who explains that the migration of Halwa to India probably happened during the Delhi Sultanate period. Apart from the capitals of Delhi and Agra, where the rulers consumed Halwa in their banquets, the sweet dish soon made its way to the streets of cities like Lucknow.
Sharar mentions that during this time in Lucknow, Muslim confectioners even came to be known as Halwais—now the common name for confectioners—thanks to the growing popularity of the Halwa. He explains in his book that while Muslims prefer salty foods, Hindus of the time had a real sweet tooth—which is why the community not only took to eating Halwa but also came up with pure vegetarian versions of the same! In fact, the semolina, ghee and nuts version of Halwa which is consumed with puris is a purely Hindu concoction, inspired by the Middle-Eastern Halvah.
During the nineteenth century, Sharar explains, the most popular, broad varieties of North Indian Halwa were:
• Sohan, hard orange-coloured, filled with nuts
• Papri, hard and dry
• Jauzi, soft and crumbly
• Habshi, soft and black
• Dudhia, steamed and jelly-like in texture
Today, there are innumerable Halwa varieties that Indians, irrespective of their religion, eat not only at home but also at places of worship and banquets. The simple, easy-to-make Halwa has had quite the long and sweet journey, right?
